Employment

Work–life balance has become one of the most pressing issues facing industrial societies such as Germany and the UK. As the proportion of dual-working households grows with women’s increased participation in the labour market, time pressures increase as families seek to co-ordinate and control their working lives. At the same time, pressures from employers can pull in the opposite direction as organisations try to organise time in order to be more responsive, meet consumer demands, and compete both domestically and internationally. This report analyses the time use patterns in working households and demonstrates how there are both considerable similarities and differences in the allocation of time across households and countries. Frank Bauer, Hermann Groß, Gwen Oliver, Georg Sieglen and Mark Smith

In the last quarter of 2006, employment in the UK reached a record high of over 29 million. But it is important to consider the quality of the new jobs that have been created, as well as their number. Although the average quality of jobs in the UK has increased overall, recent evidence suggests that polarisation of employment has emerged in Britain in recent decades – there has been a growth in the number of high-paid and low-paid jobs relative to middle-ranking occupations. This paper examines the geographical pattern of employment polarisation across the British regions – and is the first piece of empirical research to look at this specific issue. By Ioannis Kaplanis, Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics.

28 February 2007. This paper explores the relationship between skills and welfare-to-work policy. Skills and employment are intimately connected, and we intuitively expect to see a positive correlation between the two. Other things being equal, the more advanced the skills (notionally represented by qualifications) an individual has, the more employable he or she is. By Michael Johnson and Katie Schmuecker with Howard Reed.